“As we know, it is also mistaken to limit the ‘freedom’ of interpretive choice to externals and marginal phenomena rather than think of the whole performance in a way that is both bound and free”—Gadamer, Truth and Method. (Emphasis Mine). Introduction The bounds (ὁρία) are an important yet perplexing form of rulership in traditional astrology. …
Marcus Manilius’s Astronomica is one of our oldest and most detailed historical sources for how ancient astrologers conceptualized the twelve places. Manilius is believed to have composed this work in the early first century, probably around 14 A.D.1 In contrast, Valens, whom astrologer Chris Brennan acclaims as “the single most important surviving source for studying …
The Timaeus is one of Plato’s most historically influential dialogues, because it, unlike the others, was translated into Latin1 and preserved in the medieval world. Yet it is also one of the hardest to understand. The bulk of this “dialogue” consists of a monologue by Timaeus, a Pythagorean philosopher from Locri, who tells an imaginative …
The Soul and its salvation are central to various systems of religion and esoteric philosophy. Yet, despite its centrality, the doctrine of the immortality of the soul is often implicitly assumed rather than explicitly argued for. Plato’s Phaedo, which recounts Socrates last dialogue before his execution at the hands of the Athenians, makes an important …
In today’s essay I would like to continue our investigation of examination of the core doctrines of Pythagoreanism. Specifically, this essay will explore the Pythagorean theory of number, harmony, and cosmos. That number would play an important role in Pythagoreanism should probably not surprise us, given the famous theorem bearing the Pythagorean name and the …
In my last essay, I presented the myth of Pythagoras and argued for its abiding relevance.[1] I’d now like to move on to explore some of the basic teachings of Pythagoreanism and how those teachings have influenced the development of Greek philosophy. Specifically, this essay will examine the Pythagorean doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration …